LUCKNOW, July 4 -- Uttar Pradesh Congress state president Ajay Rai and Apni Janata Party chief Swami Prasad Maurya and their supporters on Thursday hit the streets against the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to merge primary and upper primary schools having less than 50 students. They said if the government did not roll back its decision of school merger, they would launch a major protest in the coming days. Congress workers in large numbers under Ajay Rai reached the district collectorate where he handed over a memorandum addressed to governor Anandiben Patel and insisted on withdrawing the decision. Rai said due to the state government's decision, a large number of children will be deprived of basic education. During his party's protest, Swami Prasad Maurya said the state government plans to merge 27,764 schools with less than 50 students enrolled in primary and upper primary schools run under Uttar Pradesh Basic Education. He alleged that the government will gradually close down several other schools on this pretext. Maurya alleged it was an attempt to hand over education into private hands. He claimed in these schools, only children of farmers, poor laborers, deprived or backward and unprivileged and economically weaker sections of rural areas go for their education. Pairing, merger or closure of schools will affect the education of such children. htc...